Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sanity returns: Obama will not release the interrogation photos
The Washington Post just dispatched a flash email that the Obama administration has reversed its decision to release the now famous interrogation photos. Excellent flip-flop, sir. I share Kathryn Lopez's question: Has the president been reading Andy McCarthy?
19 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed May 13, 02:52:00 PM:
At least the Administration is finally doing something to protect our country (even if he doesn't really mean it).
By , at
Wed May 13, 03:10:00 PM:
McCarthy's comments, as usual, are insightful and well put. But the danger that this release would have caused every American abroad was obvious. The fact that Obama would have approved such a proposal in the first place is stunning and outrageous.
By , at
Wed May 13, 03:13:00 PM:
It would be wonderful if the administration were indeed to begin morphing, finally realizing it has a duty to protect the country, but I don't see any evidence here that's happening. I think that the recent fight between the agency and the White House over release of the interrogation memos has struck an Obama nerve. He saw how destructive to the Bush administration the CIA was, which in my estimation is why he appointed a canny political operator to head the agency in the first place, and he doesn't want to prompt a similar war with the agency.
He's offering an olive branch to the CIA, in my estimation. Pragmatic, and more than a little scary since it says he is a lot more concerned about the political skills of the CIA than he is about the GOP.
By 
Christopher Chambers, at
Wed May 13, 03:25:00 PM:
"At least the Administration is finally doing something to protect our country (even if he doesn't really mean it)."
Kiss my arse, JC. Torture is torture is torture. What went on at Abu Ghraib was deadass wrong and a stain on the US Military; the releasing the photos only added piss the open wound. About the ONLY positive thing w/that was forcing the Army to act, and implicate (even if it was a whitewash) the VERY higher ups.
Obama was hinting about the material in order to scare the perps and yes-man who cooked up this crap (sidebar: two thirds of the folks--including high ranking SS officers--at the Wansee mtg. in 1942 were either practicing or former attorneys). He never had any intention of releasing anything. It got douchebags scrambling, like shining a flashlight in a roach infested basement. Still, it's dicey to show your neighbors photos of your infested basement--especially when they already know about the pests and are pissed.
So yes--it's sanity stepping in to correct a past insanity. 8 years past. Congrats on the usual script-flipping, but most non-Fox News couch potatoes know what's really going on.
Can we now move to, say, Swift Boat folk honchoing the anti-Obama healthcare reform, or hell, even so-called "FlybyGate," Michelle "uppity" Obama, or Miss California. Even that hot mess entails a more stimulating discussion than this nonesense.
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed May 13, 03:48:00 PM:
As pompous and mature a rant as usual. *applause*
By , at
Wed May 13, 03:53:00 PM:
I observe a curious similarity between Obama's inconclusive posturings and Chambers' inflammatory drive-bys.
I think both Obama and Chambers don't really mean anything they say. They are just saying ridiculous things to produce an impression of activity but at the end they both simply don't want to do anything that requires prolonged and serious efforts. Talking nonsense exempts O&C from the necessity to follow thru on their words.
Go ahead, call me a racist.
By Escort81, at
Wed May 13, 05:51:00 PM:
He never had any intention of releasing anything.To assert that with such force, it sounds like you have a pipeline into the White House.
Keep the info coming!
Seriously, what does Wansee have to do with the photos? Putting millions of Jews on rail cars somehow equates to the mess in an Iraqi prison? Is it just that lawyers can do bad things, so therefore Bybee=Heydrich? I think we start getting into Ward Churchill "little Eichmanns" territory there.
I think there will be plenty of discussion about health care reform, at least on this blog. It can get to be a bit of a dry topic, so we have to throw in a little entertainment every now and then.
By , at
Wed May 13, 06:05:00 PM:
Meh,
Obama just saw how poorly the whole "torture memo" issue worked out for his party and is trying to avoid a repeat.
After all they don't need the DOD after them on top of the CIA.
By JPMcT, at
Wed May 13, 06:35:00 PM:
Obama apparently isn't able to see a train rushing toward him until the tracks start to shudder!
Clearly, his concern was not for the integrity of the United States...but a mere case of resplendent, shimmering ass coverage.
My attitude of this guy is morphing as we see him in action. Here's the transitions:
1. I don't like much about Democrats, but I lived thru Clinton, so I can live thru anything.
2. Whoa! He really IS letting Pelosi run the agenda...and Pelosi is crazy...not good...but he will eventually get his feet wet and reverse this.
3. What's up with the cabinet apppointments? Does he think we aren't noticing...or is he just arrogant and doesn't care? Oh...he'll smarten up...just give him time.
4. He's embarrassing the US while overseas...on Purpose! He's slowly selling us the the Chinese...Why? He must have some deep Machiavellian purpose.
5. I'm digging too deep. This guy is just plain incompetent.
By , at
Wed May 13, 06:56:00 PM:
Obama and the Dems are ruffling some feathers. I believe the CIA took out JFK. If Obama thinks that he can spook the CIA or the FBI, they will take him out aka JFK. The CIA are all full of ex-military and this witch hunt against those trying to defend the country are going to push these guys over the hill---they will do something.
Something was whispered to somebody and they got to Obama and told him to tone it down.
The CIA could be our Praetorian Guard. They have the means to take him out and they can.
By Georg Felis, at
Wed May 13, 09:19:00 PM:
I would think the press surrounding this event would be proof enough. If Obama released these photos, and when (not if) an American was harmed in the inevitable screaming outrage of the Religion of Peace, the press has given full notice that the blame will not be able to be passed on to Bush, who really does not sell papers anymore. The blame would fall directly on Obama. The first hundred days is over, even his supporters are getting tired of "Blame Bush" for everything.
Although personally, if forced to release these photographs, I would have them printed at 3X5 on a black and white laser printer, and hand the sheets to the Judge, with no descriptions or dates on them.
By , at
Wed May 13, 10:22:00 PM:
My guess is that the decision was 100% political. Troop safety was just an incidental plus in the calculation. Pelosi is up to her mammaries in the torture controversy and the dems don't need a full blown scandal. Furthermore releasing the photos was not an idea that polls well with the public. Obama is already perceived as weak on national security. He doesn't need to enhance that perception. Dems have bigger fish to fry ie nationalized medicine. They need this to go away and not waste any more time on it.
By buck smith, at
Thu May 14, 12:25:00 AM:
What went on at Abu Ghraib (under US rule) was no worse than what goes on in maximum secutiry prisons in every state in the US and every country in the world. What went on at Abu Ghraib (under Saddam) was arms broken through with pipes and hands cut off. I have seen the video.
By Andrew X, at
Thu May 14, 01:06:00 AM:
It does need to be pointed out that this issue and the one of prosecutions are parrallel, and both smack of incompetence.
Let's look at it politically. Upsides for the Won of proceeding: His base salivates at the way it makes the right people look bad. He hurts US interests (apparently a plus). Other stuff like that.
The downsides: he antagonizes a LOT of people best left un-antagonized. He sends a dangerous signal to a lot of people in National Security that he does NOT "have their back" in any way, and that he will prosecute them, release info on them, etc etc for politcal reasons. Upsides and downsides.
So what has he done here?? He has nailed ALL those downsides and NONE of the upsides! He has sent the message loud and clear that those people are vulnerable, that the ONLY reason he is not proceeding is because of political calculations, that if the winds blew just a little stronger he'd toss them under his oh-so-crowded-underneath bus.
And he has ticked off the Andrew Sullivans and Moveoners and their ilk at the same time by NOT proceeding as they want him to, and feel (correctly or not) that he promised to.
This is just foolish politics all the way around. No one in National Security is going to trust a guy that takes a month to calculate whether he is in their corner or not.
Just dumb.
By , at
Thu May 14, 09:05:00 AM:
So when President Obama said he would allow the release of the photographs, he was lying to us? Again?
By , at
Thu May 14, 11:56:00 AM:
Obama prosecutes war criminals or becomes one himself.
That is the law.
Conspiring to prevent prosecution of war crime by way of denying access to relevant evidence of that heinous crime is called Conspiracy as well as the criminal obstruction of justice.
America can not torture Human beings and be America.
If torture and War crimes go down the memory hole America goes too.
We can not claim to be America ,the Land of the Free,as we simultaneously violate our core principles by inhumanly violating other (many apparently innocent) Human beings right to be free from illegal invasion,sadistic torture and pre-meditated murder.
Give it a think...then choose.
I chose America!
Eric K. Johnson
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu May 14, 01:59:00 PM:
Do you believe in Santa Clause, unicorns, and leprechauns too?
Something that makes me want to face-palm... ten years and more ago, liberals were all about how terrible and imperialist and immoral America was, how it mistreated Indians, and stole from Mexico, and was mean to immigrants, and only bombed brown people, and on and on and on. There was a whole sub-industry devoted to this meme, in fact. (I'm looking at you Howard Zinn)
But now, America is a land of fairies and hope and magical promises that can't do anything even morally grey or else its righteous aura will be revoked.
"Well the American that *I* love would never do X."
The America you love doesn't exist. And neither do Santa Clause, unicorns, or leprechauns.
By Noumenon, at
Fri May 15, 05:14:00 AM:
Hey, dawnfire, I posted something on my blog that I thought you might enjoy subjecting to a withering critique. It's me coming to terms with why I was wrong about the surge.
I thought TigerHawk would be interested too, despite the length, because he once reposted my comment about "I come here to feel uncomfortable about things like opposing the surge." I still feel left of center but I notice myself coming here a lot more often and going to, say, A Tiny Revolution a lot less.
By , at
Sun May 17, 03:20:00 PM:
The America I descibe does exist.
If you don't believe in the existence of The American Dream, it's not my fault.
It is your pitiful cynical fault for attempting to justify and rationalize the sick twisted war criminals you supported( with your faux existential nonsense response) and apparently still support which makes you the enemy of America and my enemy as well.
Please piss off and go volunteer to work at Camp Gitmo?
Sincerely,
Eric K. Johnson
